Penny Thoughts ‘12—City of Life and Death (2011) ****

Chuan Lu’s “City of Life and
Death” is an intimate examination of one of history’s greatest war atrocities,
the 1937 Rape of Nanking. To this day, the treatment of Chinese refugees by
Japanese soldiers after the fall of Nanking is a point of acrimony between the
two countries. The film shows us unblinkingly why.

Shot in stunning black and
white, Lu has crafted a movie that you can’t help but walk away from wondering
how people could be so cruel to each other. The black and white photography in
combination with the story point that the Chinese refugees had a German who was
a member of the Nazi party trying to help them draws parallels to Steven
Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”. John Rabe did not succeed as grandly as Oscar
Schindler in his efforts to save these war refugees, and this is not Rabe’s
story, which makes “City of Life and Death” a far less hopeful movie than
Spielberg’s masterpiece. “City” is a masterpiece in depicting the darkest
depths of humanity, rather than showing a shining light in a dark place.

Francois Truffaut said that
there was no such thing as an anti-war movie. He hadn’t seen “City of Life and
Death”, which may be more accurately titled “City of Death”. Few war movies
have made me think, “please stop,” in the same way this one has. That’s not to
say I wasn’t still compulsively inspired to watch. The performances are compassionate and compelling. This
subject matter is of the utmost importance for people to know about. This is
one of the darkest movies of the year and one of the most important.

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Andrew D. WellsAndrew is a professionally trained actor and stage director. He was a reporter for the daily newspaper The Marshall Democrat-News. He has been critiquing film since Mr. Lucas released the first of his "Star Wars" prequels in 1999. His reviews can also be seen atMarshall Democrat-News